


softly dreaming

by jamesjoyce



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-11-02 09:37:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10941801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamesjoyce/pseuds/jamesjoyce
Summary: Blake wakes up in a world where she and Yang are married.





	softly dreaming

**Author's Note:**

> many thanks to libby for looking this over.

Blake falls asleep in a sleeping bag on cold, hard ground and wakes up in a bed that feels like a cloud. 

For a minute she just lets herself sink into the feeling. It’s been so long since she’s slept in something like this, probably hasn’t since Menagerie, but even her bed in her childhood bedroom wasn’t this soft. She feels good, and warm, and when she rolls over to luxuriate in it she feels a hard body beside her. 

_That’s_ when Blake finally wakes up. She practically jumps out of bed, too, scrambling to get out of her cocoon of blankets. Her movements are what causes her bedmate to stir, and look up. 

It’s Yang, and that just makes Blake panic even more. 

It’s Yang, and that’s what makes Blake know for certain that this is just a dream. 

“What’s the matter with you?” Yang asks, voice thick with sleep and smothered in a layer of grump. Her hair is messy and all over the place, which is a detail that Blake remembers from Beacon. But what she _definitely_ doesn’t remember is Yang sleeping in the buff, which Blake notices that she’s doing, once she sits up a little more. 

Blake suddenly finds the wall very interesting to look at. 

“Uh, nothing, bathroom, I-” Blake says, and gets the hell out of there. 

Once she’s in the bathroom she stares at the marble countertop and the sink, before slowly bringing her head up to look in the mirror. When she sees her reflection, she gasps. She can’t help it. 

Running diagonally through her face is a big, red scar. 

It doesn’t ruin the shape of her nose, the scar misses the tip of that. Instead it starts at her left temple and trails down to the right side of her chin. It looks uncannily like a claw mark, though she only has one scar instead of three or four. Blake doesn’t know what this means, but she’s certain that it doesn’t mean anything good. 

The second thing Blake notices is that on her left hand there’s a small, intricate filigree tattoo on her ring finger. It’s certainly not a ring, not like the one Blake’s mother wears, but the placement of it and the delicate detail work makes it seem like it might as well be. 

Yang walks into the bathroom just as Blake is working herself into a panic attack. She’s only wearing a pair of black boy shorts underwear. Nothing else. This does nothing to help Blake’s panicked situation, but it does help distract her a little bit. She goes back to looking in the mirror at her scar, pretending that it’s more interesting than Yang, shirtless. 

“You ready for today?” Yang asks. She picks up the yellow toothbrush from the cup at the sink. If Blake was to make a guess, she would say that the purple one is for her. 

_No_ , Blake thinks. “As I’ll ever be,” she says, and Yang grins at her through her toothpaste. 

Once she brushes for a normal amount of time, and spits in the sink, and washes out the toothpaste with soap, she’s tells Blake, “It won’t be _that_ bad. We like Team JNPR, remember? And besides, it’ll be good for you to get out of the house, homebody. Let Weiss have this one pretense of control over this day, please.” 

Blake wants to ask what the hell is going on, but instead she lets herself say what her instincts tell her to say about letting Weiss have control over anything. “Absolutely not.” 

Yang just smiles at her again, rolling her eyes, but it’s fond. This is so starkly different from the girl that Blake saw last, who wouldn’t talk to her at all, save for short one word answers or fighting maneuvers if she absolutely _had_ to. The one that would only look at her with coldness and anger in her eyes. 

Yang looking at her like she used to, back at Beacon, back before everything, but also looking at Blake like she _loves_ her, like she’s _everything_ , is so much to take in. Blake is fairly breathless from it, but Yang is acting like it’s nothing. Like the two of them are like this all the time. 

Blake chances a glance at Yang’s flesh and bone hand and sees a tattoo identical to the one on Blake’s left hand, and really starts to feel panic boiling up in her stomach. She doesn’t know what the hell this is. She doesn’t know where the _hell_ she is. She doesn’t even know if this is real at all, or if it’s a nightmare given to her by Emerald or someone with a similar semblance. 

But when Yang looks over her shoulder at Blake, after putting on a t-shirt that she found on the floor, Blake finds that she doesn’t mind much. 

As long as Yang keeps looking at her like that, Blake finds that she doesn’t mind if none of this is real. Not even when it truly feels like it is.

 

Breakfast consists of cereal and some fruit salad that’s already cut up and thrown into a bowl in the fridge. Blake eats hers silently, noting that it’s her favorite. She has her own box, and Yang has a box of the colorful, artificially fruit flavored ones that she likes so much. 

As far as Blake can tell, everything about their apartment is so...married. They have two toothbrushes in the cup, two boxes of cereal for each of them, one huge bed. But what’s really the kicker is the picture of the two of them in the living room, which Blake can see hanging on the wall from the bar where they’re eating breakfast in the kitchen. 

It’s of the two of them, wearing shorts and tank tops and flip flops, holding up a little banner that says _Just Married!_ Next to it is a picture that looks like a traditional wedding in Menagerie, both of them smiling just as widely at the camera as they were in the first picture, though they looked way less comfortable. 

Yang sees her looking and grins. “Our weddings were so romantic, weren’t they. Me, asking if you wanted to get married, you, putting on your flip flops so that we could walk to the court house. The random citizens that were our witnesses that we bought a pack of gum for as thanks. Calling Ruby and Weiss immediately afterwards because we knew if we didn’t that Weiss would never forgive us. And then calling our parents, who really were mad. And then getting married _again_ , because your parents were so upset. What everyone that wants to get married grows up dreaming of.” 

Blake smiles, from the amusement in Yang’s tone if nothing else. She wishes she could remember these things, or had any idea about what Yang was talking about, but she doesn’t and that hurts. “Yeah,” she finally says. 

Yang’s scroll lights up from where it’s charging in the kitchen, and so Yang goes over to look at it. “Come on,” she says, “apparently Jaune’s waiting for us.” 

They go to out on Yang’s motorcycle. Not Bumblebee, but another one, completely black and super sleek. There are two helmets, and Yang throws one to Blake, who catches it easily. If she holds on to Yang too tightly she’ll never admit it, and Yang doesn’t complain.

 

Jaune and Pyrrha are waiting for them in front of a fountain in the middle of the shopping center. 

When Yang had said JNPR, Blake hadn’t thought much about it, too busy freaking out about everything else. Now, though, she registers the _P_ , if only because Pyrrha is standing right in front of them. Pyrrha is alive and whole, and she smiles next to Jaune. 

No one is acting like this is anything out of the ordinary, so Blake strives to act like it’s normal too. It’s hard, though, because the last Blake heard of Pyrrha she was dead and no one could find her body. Blake never thought she’d see her again, especially not in a soft looking maroon sweater and jeans and boots. She’s holding Jaune’s hand. That might be even more shocking than Pyrrha being alive, honestly. 

“We’re just waiting on Ren and Nora,” Jaune says, looking down at his scroll. “Ren said they would be here soon.” 

Before he can say another word, Nora comes running up the sidewalk, waving. “Sorry,” she says, panting a little. “Sitter had to cancel last minute, and Nugs felt the need to throw up on her first outfit of the day, because it was ugly.”

“That sounds like her,” Pyrrha says, laughing. 

Blake wonders who they’re talking about until she sees Ren, coming at a much more sedate pace than Nora. He was wearing a baby carrier with a tiny baby with two bows in her black hair inside of it. 

“Hey,” he said, the baby--Nugs? What kind of name--at his chest blinking up at everyone. 

So Jaune and Pyrrha are together, which is shocking. Ren and Nora are together, if their wedding rings were anything to go by, which was less shocking. Though, them having a kid definitely felt shocking. 

None of them were _old_ , but obviously all of them had grown up. 

“Great, we’re all here. Now the Distraction Action can begin,” Yang says. 

“ _What_?” Nora cries. “Who told you? Was it Jaune? I bet it was Jaune.” 

“It wasn’t me.” Everyone stares at him, “Really, it wasn’t!” 

“It was actually Ruby,” Yang says. “She’s really excited about our first anniversary apparently.” 

“Everyone is,” Jaune says. “We never thought you two would get together, let alone actually get married.” 

Yang wraps her arm around Blake’s shoulders. “What can I say? True love conquers all.” When she leans in to kiss Blake’s cheek, performatively, with a huge smacking sound, Blake hopes that her blush isn’t too obvious. 

 

They go around shopping for a while, just looking at everything more than anything. Just killing time, really. 

Blake finally gets a sense of where they are. They’re in Vale, the city, Blake can see the tower, completely rebuilt. There’s no sign of the destruction that had been here, last time that Blake had been in Vale. None of the streets are torn up, none of the windows are broken. 

Everything looks perfect, just like it had the day Blake had first come here. It had been so different from the tent cities that the White Fang had travelled or the cramped buildings of Menagerie that she had actually been impressed. She feels a little bit of that now, even though Blake is far removed from the girl that she had once been. 

Everyone is just how she remembers them, too. It’s as though they’re still at Beacon, or at least, like they would have been if nothing had gone wrong. They could be walking to class, if they were still in their costumes, the baby notwithstanding. 

Blake doesn’t add much to the conversation, just watches them, and listens to them talk, and smiles. They don’t seem to be waiting for her to talk much, so she just listens. 

She learns that Weiss and Ruby are engaged, that Sun and Neptune are back in Vacuo, which is why they can’t be here for the surprise party. Weiss is apparently CEO of Schnee Dust Company, and she and Ruby live in Atlas, and everyone wishes that they could see them more. Apparently Ren and Nora want to move back to Patch ( _Back?_ Blake wonders, but doesn’t ask) which Yang encourages, because apparently her dad misses having “the kids” around. 

Eventually, Pyrrha stops in front of a window, while everyone keeps going. Blake wonders if they just didn’t notice, but she knows that they have, judging by the way everyone glances at her worriedly, and then keeps walking. 

Blake decides to stay with her, and everyone seems to understand that too. They just keep going, as if they’re sure that Blake and Pyrrha will catch up with them. 

“Are you okay?” Blake asks. 

Pyrrha startles a little, before righting herself. She looks over at Blake, “Yeah, I’m fine. Being around everyone still gets to be a little much, you know? Not that I don’t love them, of course I do, it’s just that sometimes everyone all at once-” 

“It’s okay, I get it,” Blake tells her, wanting to get rid of the guilty look on Pyrrha’s face. 

“Yeah, you do,” Pyrrha says, and sighs. “Jaune’s been really understanding about everything, this whole time. I feel bad, though, sometimes needing my own space so much. It’s hard for him not to hover. I feel like I should be over this by now, it’s been _years_ but I’m just. I’m not yet.” 

“You don’t have to be anything,” Blake tells her. “Jaune will understand and love you regardless. We all will.” That much, at least, Blake knows to be the truth. She doesn’t know what’s happened to Pyrrha to make her so overwhelmed around people, or why Pyrrha seems to think that she’ll understand, and talks to her like this, but Blake is just saying what she knows to be right. Everyone loved Pyrrha, _everyone_. That can’t have changed, no matter what kind of dream world Blake is in right now.

Pyrrha gives her a tight smile. “Yeah, I know,” she says. She takes a deep breath and starts walking towards the group again. Blake follows without saying anything else. 

 

They spend the day together, and it’s nice. By the time the sun begins to set, Yang gets a text from Weiss. “Oh, Weiss and Ruby want us to come over to the Schnee townhome in Vale for dinner in an hour,” Yang says, and Blake rolls her eyes. Weiss has always been so obvious. 

“Okay, see you guys _later_ then,” Nora tells them, the emphasis on her words making everyone laugh, and they part ways. 

“Are we going to have to dress up?” Blake asks. 

“Probably. Just wear some heels. If it’s any fancier than that I’ll fight Weiss myself,” Yang tells her. 

By the time they get home they only have around thirty minutes to get dressed and over to the Schnee townhome before they’re considered late to their own surprise anniversary party, Yang says. “Do you think we have time for a quickie?” Yang asks, looking longingly at their bed, all white unmade comforter and sheets. 

“Do you really think you’ll be able to deal with having less time to do your hair?” 

Yang sighs, like this is such a burden, “Good point,” she says, and heads to the bathroom. 

Yang goes to their closet to decide on what to wear. Most of this has to be Yang’s, Blake decides, because there’s just so _much_ and it’s all so _colorful_. Finally she finds what’s probably meant to be her corner, and decides to wear the first purple dress that she finds and nude pumps. 

Yang walks out with her hair and make up done some time later, watching Blake put on some earrings. “I _really_ wish we had time for that quickie,” Yang tells her, before running into the closet to change. 

By the time they’re both ready, they’re late, but since it’s a surprise party Blake figures that everyone can deal with that. 

Ruby is the one that opens the door. “Oh you’re here!” she says brightly, widening her eyes so that they’re the size of saucers as if trying to warn Yang and Blake about what’s to come. 

And what’s to come is everyone screaming out _SURPRISE!_ once Yang and Blake move into the dining room. 

“Oh wow,” Blake says flatly. “I’m...surprised?” 

Yang elbows her in the side when Weiss huffs. “Who told you? Who told her?” 

“No one, Blake’s just mean,” Ruby says, and Blake gives her a Look. Ruby mouths _sorry!_ and then runs off to hide behind Jaune, which counts basically as no protection at all. 

“We love it, thank you Weiss,” Yang enthuses, and pulls Blake away to go get a glass of champagne. “You’re awful,” Yang tells her, voice fond. The world seems to narrow into the both of them then, Yang so close and smelling so nice, her hair everywhere. 

It had been easy all day to be normal, with everyone surrounding them. But now, with Yang so close, it just isn’t. They are still surrounded by people, but now Blake wants to kiss Yang, the feeling overwhelming. Her eyes flutter closed without warning, and Yang seems to get the memo, because she leans in to fill the gap. 

It’s short and chaste, but also perfect. When Yang pulls away Blake can taste the lipstick that she left behind. 

 

Blake thinks she deserves a pat on the back, for how well she’s been keeping it together all day. First during the day with JNPR, and now at the party. She socializes with everyone about as much as the expect, and when she doesn’t know what to say Yang always sweeps in to save the day. 

It’s nice. Blake enjoys hanging off of Yang’s arm and being surrounded by their friends. The last time she was in any of their company they were cold, wet, and exhausted. They had just been attacked by members of The Tribe and were recuperating, and it was so hard, trying to survive and also not be at each other’s throats all the time. 

The remainders of Team JNPR all still got along, but Team RWBY was a different story. They had imploded and it was hard to deal with, and it was ugly, and they were still trying to fix themselves and mend the relationships that had gotten torn during the Fall of Beacon. Blake had thought maybe they would never be able to. 

This dream, or whatever it was, seemed to fast forwarded to the part where they were all okay with each other. Where things were fine. And honestly it made Blake emotional, her heart swollen and bruised, to see everyone being okay. More than okay. Everyone is _happy_ and everyone is where they should be. Where they _want_ to be.

Before dinner, Weiss holds up her wine glass, clearing her throat several times before everyone shuts up. “I just want to congratulate Blake and Yang for making it this long,” she says. “You two are amazing and beautiful and I’m so glad that you got your happily ever afters. You deserve it.” 

“Hell yeah,” Nora says, and gulps down her wine. Everyone follows her example, even Weiss after she rolls her eyes. 

“Wait, wait, if we’re being emotional I want to say something,” Yang says, and everyone looks up at her, surprised. 

“Blake...I love you,” Yang continues, and Blake feels tears come to her eyes. She bites her lips, trying to hold it together. 

It’s just three words, just Yang saying I and love and you, but it hurts so much. It hurts so much because in the real world, Blake doesn’t have this. In the real world, Yang hates her, and Blake can’t blame her for it. Yang is so angry and Blake just takes every punishment that Yang gives her, in the form of her silences and icy glares, because she deserves it. 

Blake doesn’t deserve Yang loving her, not a chance. She doesn’t know how this Yang ever forgave her for the horrible things that she’s done. Yang’s arm, in this universe, is still gone, and is now shiny purple metal. Blake’s sins haven’t been magically sent away. 

“I love you so much,” Yang keeps going, “And this is a gross speech but I just wanted you to know that even though it’s always been a year, I know that we’ll have more. I really think that we’re going to be able to take anything life throws at us, because well, we’ve proved that already, haven’t we? We’re going to grow and change together and I’m going to stand together with you, beside you, as much as I can until I die. So really, babe, love ya.” Yang winks and everyone laughs and Blake finds herself smiling back too. It’s a wet, wavering thing, and Blake manages to hold it together for just a while longer until she goes back into the kitchen. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Yang asks, when she finds Blake standing there, crying like an idiot. She sounds so tender and concerned that it just makes Blake cry more. 

“Just, why do you love me so much?” Blake asks. “How?” 

Yang stiffens up at that. She opens her mouth once, and closes it again, before she finally reaches out for the hand that Blake has covering her face, and threads her fingers together. “I’ve always loved you,” she says finally. “And when I saw you that day, when the White Fang attacked us, and your face was bleeding so much and we all thought you were going to die, I...” Yang trails off. “I love you because I just do, because we’ve really got our hooks into each other. I’ve tried not to love you, but I can’t. You know all this, but I’ll keep telling you until you feel like you have to keep asking. I’ll tell you every day, okay?” She leans in to kiss Blake’s temple, and Blake closes her eyes at the contact. 

“Okay,” Blake says, and takes a deep breath, and another one, and another one, until she’s stopped crying completely. 

 

When they get home, and undress down to their underwear, Yang tackles Blake to the bed. “We definitely have time for a quickie now,” she says. “Or, not a quickie. The night is ours. And tomorrow morning too.” 

Blake kisses her back, wet and hot and perfect. She’s so in love that it hurts. Even if this is just a dream, just a hallucination, Blake wants this. “Okay,” she says, and kisses Yang again. 

Yang’s hands and mouth are everywhere, and it definitely feels like they’re married, in their bed, happy and safe and warm. She returns as much as she gets, hoping that her feelings come through, in ways that she can’t express them back in her world.

At the end of the night Blake feels sated, and a little sweaty and hot and gross, but she doesn’t move despite these things. Instead she snuggles closer to Yang and falls asleep quickly, knowing there’s no point in fighting this. 

 

_This could all be yours_ says a woman that looks the way that Blake had in the dream, scar and all. 

_What do you mean?”_ Blake asks her, sounding small and afraid in the darkness of the void that they were in. 

_You know, _the woman, Blake, tells her. _Good luck_.__

__

__Blake falls asleep in warm bed that feels like a cloud and wakes up in a sleeping bag on the cold, hard ground. She can feel herself tearing up, and forces herself not to, curling up into something as close to a ball as she can in her sleeping bag._ _

__It was just a dream, then. It was definitely just a dream. It felt so real but it was just a dream and Blake takes a deep breath to make sure that she doesn’t end up crying for real. She’s left alone for a while, until she feels something hit her foot._ _

__She looks up to find Yang staring down at her, eyes cold, and it’s so different from the Yang in her dream prophecy thing that Blake bites her lip to keep from tearing up again. She’s a mess and she hates it._ _

__Blake doesn’t want to cry._ _

__“Breakfast is almost ready,” Yang tells her. “We’re going to move out as soon as it’s done.”_ _

__“Okay,” Blake says. Her voice cracks a little, full of emotion, and it’s embarrassing. Yang looks away._ _

__“I’ll save something for you,” Yang tells her, softening a little. Blake holds onto that, “if you need me to.”_ _

__“Thanks,” Blake says, and Yang nods, and walks away._ _

__Blake watches her go and resolves right then to do her best to make her dream happen, as best she can._ _

**Author's Note:**

> my twitter is @thecivilunrest i'm locked but accept all requests


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